A boy's best friend
by Linneagb
Summary: Six months after Artie was paralyzed his parents takes him to a dog shelter to hope to find something, anything at all for Artie to feel happy and excited about. Something to just smile at for the first time in months. But it's without hoping for too much they step over that threshold...


**Two and a half years ago I wrote a oneshot based on a post I read on Facebook. It was just another one of those stories that circles a bit now and then about a couple who met on an airplane. Anyway, I suddenly remembered a post I read ages ago- five years or so. I might have seen it somewhere else because I think I've read it loads. Anyway, I was at work when I suddenly remembered it and then I couldn't let it go. And I wanted to write something based on it and thought of Artie and this is the result **

**I was thinking David- Artie's dad, could look like Paul Johansson. He and Kevin McHale does look a bit alike…. At least I think so. And Cathy Paul- whose point of view this story is written, looks like Beverly Todd. **

After having an animal shelter in my own house for the last fifty years I had seen all kinds of pets passing by, either for a short while when the owners were on a short trip or ill or for some other reason unable to care for their best friends.

I had taken care of dogs mostly, but also cats, guinea pigs, hamsters, goldfish, ferrets and even miniature pigs. I had had people coming and going into my house, both for just seeing the pets to check what suited them, or even to get a dog or a cat or any other kind of pets for themselves…

Or the first ended in the latter….

I would say that nothing would surprise me by now, that there was nothing that could stick to my memory after all these years…

But that was before the Abrams' family came around one Sunday morning.

"Hello." The doorbell rang and in came a brown- haired woman in her thirties and shook my hand. "Nancy Abrams. You must be Catherine. Or do you prefer Miss or Mrs. Paul?"

"Yes, Cathy. Just Cathy, please… yes, we spoke on the phone the other week. You were bringing your family. Were you?"

"Yes… My boys are in the car, they should come here soon…" Mrs. Abrams opened the door slightly and looked outside, at something in the driveway that I couldn't see, then she looked down to all of the five or six dogs that had ran up to the new stranger that had turned up among them. "Well hello, hello. A whole lot of hellos."

"NO." We suddenly heard a shout from outside and the driveway, the voice was a child's, a boy's. "I'M NOT GOING IN. I DO NOT CARE WHY WE WENT HERE ANYWAY."

Mrs. Abrams closed her eyes for a couple of seconds, I tried to ignore the fact that I was eavesdropping on things weren't on my business. And whether people were going to leave my house with a new friend or not certainly wasn't…

"I HATE DOGS."

One more shout, three words sounded louder than the ones before.

I had heard that many times before, it always sent a bit of a punch into my heart.

"Okay now." Mrs. Abrams stood up from sitting kneeled and pushed away the Golden Retriever Goldie from her. "That's it…." She stomped out the doorway and down the porch steps, I heard her steps continue down to her car and believe me, was I glad I wasn't the one she'd made her way to. "NOW ARTHUR ABRAMS. YOU GET U… YOU LET US HELP YOU GET OUT OF THIS CAR NOW. AND YOU COME INTO THAT HOUSE AFTER I AND YOUR FATHER HAVE DRIVEN FIVE HOURS AWAY FROM LIMA I DON'T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO WITH YOU."

There was a pause, I was standing right inside the door and once again pretended that I wasn't eavesdropping. Which I probably wouldn't have made an effort to because there probably was someone back in Lima who could hear her.

"THE LAST SIX MONTHS YOU'VE BEEN ACTING MEAN AND RUDELY AND… AND I KNOW IT SUCKS. BECAUSE YOU'RE PARALYZED AND…"

"You don't have to remind me."

This was something new, on the phone earlier Mrs. Abrams had told me about her husband and son but she'd never mentioned a handicap in the mix…

"NO. I KNOW I DON'T. AND IT SUCKS OKAY? I GOT AWAY FROM THAT CRASH WITHOUT A SCRATCH AND YOU… BUT YOU'VE GOT THIS FOR LIFE…" Mrs. Abrams' voice lowered and went squeaky and I had to listen more closely to hear the rest. "…And I'd do anything to change this but I can't. And… this is for life Artie. And it's been six months and things will have to go back to normal."

"There is no normal. Not anymore."

Now there could be heard tears in the boy's voice and even without seeing him at all I could feel my heart breaking for him. I didn't know his story, this was the first time I met the Abrams', but piece by piece, quickly I put it together to a car crash and the boy- Artie obviously, had been hurt and handicapped for life while Mrs. Abrams hadn't.

"No, not like it was before. But we can make a new normal, we can, we will and we have to."

There was another, longer pause and when I heard footsteps up towards the porch again I backed away from the door and pretended I hadn't heard what they just said.

"They'll be right here." Mrs. Abrams said when she came in, then pulled her jacket off and hung it on a hook on the wall, that was mostly taken up by dogs' leashes and collars. "So…" she looked down on Goldie, and two of her friends- a Chihuahua named Roger and a stray mix of Lord knows what kind named Wallis. "Do you have many dogs here? At the moment I mean?"

"Thirteen dogs…" I said just as we heard more footsteps up the porch and Mr. Abrams came in, carrying a boy around eight bridal style. "Oh, yes. Thirteen dogs, five cats, eight guinea pigs, a hamster and two goldfish… Maybe then, you're going to find one that you like…" The boy shrugged and didn't even look at me, but had a grumpy pout on his lips and a way too big hoodie as if he wanted to hide in it if it was big enough.

"Maybe…" Mr. Abrams said. "Well, I can't shake your hand right now but I'm David, David Abrams and… Come on Artie, you can at least greet this nice lady who lets us come into her home and take a look…"

"Hey…" Finally, Artie slowly looked up and mumbled greeting me. "I'm Artie."

Artie turned his head away again, I had lost my words for a moment but took a deep breath and spoke.

"Is Artie the one who's going to get a dog… or a cat or an animal of any kind today?" The two parents nodded. "Well then, I'm suggesting we go into the living room, leave Artie alone to meet the animals and while we go into the kitchen and have a cup of coffee or tea and have a chat while Artie greets any animals that happens to come up to him. Or what do you say about that? Artie?"

Artie didn't answer me, he looked away and to his hands that he held on his legs. While he seemed to want to get as far away as possible.

"Well…" Mrs. Abrams spoke first. "…That sounds good to me. I do like coffee." I smiled and gave them one nod while I showed them into the living room and gestured towards the couch, David Abrams walked over and quietly put his son on the couch. Artie made him as comfortable as it was possible for the moment but still didn't say anything, or even look at the dog's that came running up to him or the cat that laid on the back of the couch.

Without another word I gestured to the two parents and led them into the kitchen where I put the kettle on.

"So… Mr. And Mrs. Abrams… Do you want to tell me what you're doing here today?"

"I'm Nancy…" Nancy said, "And David." She gestured towards her husband. "And… you've caught a bit here and there I guess. In May, earlier this year I and Artie was in a car crash. A car drove straight into ours in the middle of a cross road and it hit Artie's side of the car, I came out without a scratch but Artie broke his back. He is now paralyzed for the rest of his life and… he's been so… bored the last six months, bored and angry and rude and… I get him. I do. But… Now it's almost Christmas and we just wanted to give him something to look forward to, something to smi…. We haven't seen him smiling in months and… if this doesn't work then I don't know what on earth will…"

I didn't know whatever words I could have chosen when I reached David and Nancy each steaming cup of coffee, took the milk and the sugar to the table and sat down with them.

I looked up towards the Christmas star hanging in my window, these kind of things and this time of year always made me wonder how many boxes of a kitten or a puppy under the Christmas Tree only to be put out on whatever street when a kid didn't care for it.

How many of the dogs having come and gone in my house had actually started of as just that- gifts under the tree.

I could only pray and hope that this wasn't another one of those, and I didn't believe so either.

"Maybe he will find his one best friend in this house." I could feel a frown forming in my forehead, but I just had to say something at all. "But I can't do miracles. Sorry, but I can't promise you what will help if it isn't this. I wish I could just snap my fingers and make everything well for yours and every other kid in this world but… isn't that what we all wish?"

The three of us suddenly looked up when a new kind of noise, a noise I didn't recognized echoed in between the walls of my little house. At first I felt scared, because it sounded like someone crying. Then I realized what it actually was…

And right in my living room, where I and his parents soon walked in Artie was laughing, joyfully and of that kind when he wasn't able to even breathe. I could feel a smile grow on my lips as we walked in to see him sitting there with a black furball of a puppy stepping around on his lap and licking his face.

For a moment none of us moved, then David turned towards me and spoke so quickly I barely had the time to hear what he was saying.

"What do you want for him? What do we owe you? Can we take him home today?"

"First of all, she. And I don't want a dollar for her… for this… There's just sometimes nothing that words could ever say or money could ever pay… So do you have a camera?" Nancy nodded. "Send me some pictures occasionally. And make sure you take well care of her. Then I don't need anything else."

I had said those words before, every now and then. When people had that look in their eyes as if they were worried because they had already twisted and turned every dime before they were even thinking of getting a dog.

But I'd never been as sure of it as I was seeing Artie wiping his glasses with his shirt after the pup had licked all over them.

"Her name's Meela." I said before anyone else had said anything. "And she's a Newfoundland dog. She's just a puppy now. But when she's been growing properly she's probably going to be at least three times the size as right now. Are mum and dad okay with that?"

I glanced towards the couple, Nancy was stunned where she stood and only stared and watched silently. There were tears rolling down her cheeks and me in the middle of it all who didn't know what to do or say.

But I did feel my smile grow bigger when Artie started laughing again- that it could be so incredibly funny with a Newfoundland Dog tickling his face with her tongue.

"But… but money. I have…" David felt all of his pockets, pulled a wallet out and reached me a bill. "You have to… We need to… We should pay."

"Look at that." I gestured towards Artie and Meela, it was as if Artie needed to take up six months of laughing because right now he couldn't stop and I could feel tears glimmering in my eyes. "I don't need much more payment than that. But if you promise to send me pictures of their and yours life together then I don't need anything else…"

"But…"

David was left with his wallet in one hand and the bill in another not knowing what to say, then he dropped them both to the floor and suddenly hugged me tight.

"Seldom have I seen a boy so incredibly, all, nothing- else- but joyful." I gestured towards Artie and Meela once again. "I never did this for the money David. If you can just stay in town for a couple of days we can get all paper work done." I looked back towards the couch and we stood in silence, I, Nancy and David for a long while.

"Whatever paper work would be important for those two… Seldom have I seen…" I had to wipe a tear from my eye. "…I don't usually see these kinds of examples of what they say dogs are…. Man's best friend huh?"

And in this life, in this world, there could be no stronger love than in between this one boy, and this one dog.

No money could have payed for what I was witnessing here, today.

That one single, two months old, black furball could bring a boy so much joy…

**Random fact (I always leave one or more of these at the end of a chapter.) **

I actually haven't written and certainly not updated anything in over a week. Why not? Well, when I had a new laptop about a month ago, I could use word document for a month for free. And now my brother was going to help me download it, but he hasn't quite succeeded so currently I am using my mum's laptop and YAY. I can write again.

I wrote the beginning of this story a few different versions to just write. And then sent it in a PM to my best Internet- friend x snow- pony x.

The name Roger might seem weird for a chihuahua but behind it is when I and my mum went to Norway with train years ago, and in the same coupé as us sat a girl and her chihuahua- Roger. I can't remember her name but I do remember she let me hold in and I was over the moon with joy. I might have been nine or so at the time.


End file.
